Gunman Gives Himself Up to Police after Shooting, Standoff at Nevada Walmart

RENO, Nev. -- A gunman who police said was about to be fired surrendered Friday after shooting three co-workers at a Walmart store in Nevada in a possible retaliation attack, authorities said.

The surrender came after police negotiators spoke for two hours by telephone with 45-year-old John Dennis Gillane as he was holed up in the back of the store.

Gillane was taken into custody and will be charged with three counts of attempted murder, Reno police Lt. Mohammad Rafqat said.

No shots were fired after the three victims, including a manager, were wounded shortly after 8:30 a.m., police said.

"I'm very happy he is out and the situation didn't escalate," Rafqat said. "We convinced him the best move was to surrender."

Rafqat did not know how many shots were fired or whether Gillane said anything at the time of the shootings.

"Today was going to be the day he was going to address his employment situation," he said.

Police had not established a motive for the shooting but suspect it was related to the termination, Reno Deputy Police Chief Mike Whan said.

At least nine heavily armed officers entered the store more than an hour before the surrender of Gillane, who police believe had a handgun.

One of the victims was critically wounded, but "the prognosis is good for all of them," said Dan Fogleman, a spokesman for Wal-mart Stores Inc. He provided no further details.

Police originally described all the injuries as non-life threatening but later said they were not sure that was the case.

One victim was treated and released, Rafqat said. Another was in critical but stable condition, and the third was in serious condition.

Employees were placed on a bus in the parking lot of a sporting goods store next to the Walmart.

Washoe County deputies, Sparks police and the FBI joined Reno police in sweeping the store to be sure there were no hostages.

Jack McDonald, 64, of Reno said he works as a greeter at the store but was not there during the shooting.

"There are some strange people who work here, but I can't think of one who would be a vicious enough person to do something like this," McDonald said. "This has to be a personal thing."

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Ex-NBA Player Gives GOP Hope in Oregon Race for Governor

Oregon hasn't had a Republican governor since 1987. Its legislature is dominated by Democrats and both U.S. senators are Democrats. The state chose Barack Obama for president by double digits. 

But this year's GOP nominee for governor threatens to defy Oregon's history as a Democratic stronghold. In one of the most overlooked campaigns of the season, an ex-NBA star whose most public experience closing the deficit was when the Trail Blazers were down in the fourth quarter is running even with his far-more-seasoned Democratic opponent. 

Meet Chris Dudley. Like many promising Republican outsiders this year, he's running on a jobs agenda. That can't hurt in a state where the unemployment rate is 10.6 percent, among the highest in the nation, and homelessness is rampant. Since leaving the NBA, Dudley has worked at two financial planning firms -- one of which billed itself as a company for corporations and "the ultra-affluent" -- and is now pushing an economic agenda of tax cuts and lower government spending.  

But in an anti-establishment year, Dudley may also benefit from the fact that his opponent, John Kitzhaber, has held the job for eight years. 

David Avella, executive director of Republican recruitment arm GOPAC, said Dudley has the double-benefit of "no experience" and an opponent who has too much of it. 

"In Oregon, you're looking at a situation where it's not just an incumbent trying to say, 'keep me here.' It's a former politician saying 'put me back in there,'" Avella said. 

The candidates have mere days to make their closing arguments, with ballots going out to voters starting Friday in Oregon's unique mail-in election. Republicans are poised for pickups in state capitals across the country, but a win in Oregon would be particularly unsettling for Democrats. 

The latest Rasmussen Reports poll released Sunday showed Kitzhaber leading 48-46 percent. Other recent surveys have shown Dudley slightly ahead. Kitzhaber's candidacy may also be hampered by low approval ratings for the sitting Democratic governor, Ted Kulongoski. 

In the closing days, the candidates are casting their contest as the classic case of change versus experience. 

Kitzhaber has an accomplished history in Oregon's state government. He served as the state's Senate president and helped pass the Oregon Health Plan expanding health care access to low-income families. Following that, he was elected to serve two terms as governor, leaving office in 2003. 

Kitzhaber is not running from that record. Though less is often more when it comes to political experience this year, several out-of-the-woodwork candidates -- like Christine O'Donnell in Delaware's Senate race -- are struggling to convince voters they meet the requirements. Kitzhaber is trying to dunk Dudley in that category. The ex-governor hammered his opponent for peddling old ideas and needing "on-the-job training" at their only debate last month and released an ad that cast Dudley as a disinterested novice. 

"You can hire Chris Dudley -- who's never managed anything, never tried to create jobs to help Oregon's families and never shown much interest in Oregon," the ad said. 

As for the financial experience Dudley does have, Kitzhaber's tried to turn that into a negative. His campaign released an ad ridiculing the "ultra-affluent" mission statement of his former firm, M Financial Group, and accusing him of pushing tax breaks for the wealthy. 

Kitzhaber's not lacking for powerful friends. He's getting help from President Obama next week in one of the few battleground states where the president could be considered an asset - Obama's 2008 rally in Portland drew one of the largest crowds in campaign history. 

The Democratic Governors Association also has money to burn, after it announced it raised a record $10 million in the third quarter. 

But Dudley, who since leaving the NBA became a financial planner, is playing up his outsider status. He's casting Kitzhaber as a stale alternative as he touts out a "20-point" jobs plan that involves cuts to the state's capital gains tax, credits for employers who add workers on public assistance and income-tax sharing with Oregon's cities for revenue from new businesses. 

Dudley tapped the state's last Republican governor, Vic Atiyeh, to cut a radio ad for him in which Atiyeh said Kitzhaber is "desperate to protect the status quo." 

"It's time to finally turn the page on the politics of the past," Atiyeh said. 

Click here for more Fox News "Days to Decide" coverage. 

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BMW Gives Big Boost to South Carolina Workforce in Expansion of Assembly Plant

GREER, S.C. -- As much of the nation grapples with a jobless recovery, a $1 billion expansion at BMW's assembly plant in South Carolina is expected to create 1,600 new jobs at the facility by the end of the year.

A thousand of those employees have already been hired, bringing the total number of workers at the plant near Greenville and Spartanburg to 7,000. The expansion is expected to have a ripple effect throughout the economy in that region of South Carolina, which has already seen a dramatic transition from textile mills to international business over the past two decades.

The money BMW employees spend at local businesses, as well as the company's extensive network of suppliers in the region, create additional jobs. According to a 2008 study by the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, each BMW job has a multiplier of 4.3.

The plant expansion has begun manufacturing the second generation of BMW's X3 compact sport utility vehicle. The South Carolina facility also builds BMW's X5 and X6 models.

"We're (in the U.S.) actually the largest market for the vehicle," said Marty Padgett, editorial director of High Gear Media. "It's more cost effective to build it closer to the customers."

Even so, BMW plans to export 70 percent of the X3s produced at its South Carolina plant -- 20 percent for sale in China.

"International trade conditions have brought about a decline in the value of the US dollar vis a vis the Euro and other currencies," said Leslie Hough, an auto industry expert and project director for National Community Development Services. "That makes building cars in the United States more competitive and a better value for BMW."

While developing countries, such as China and India, offer less expensive labor, Hough said these nations still lack the skill and technical expertise to produce vehicles to the high quality standards of a major global automaker such as BMW.

Padgett agreed South Carolina and BMW are a good fit.

"The fact that they have three vehicle lines that are produced in South Carolina completely for the rest of the world really attests to the fact that they choose the right people, that they educate them to build cars and that they've been able to build a culture of auto manufacturing that didn't exist back in the early 1990s," Padgett said.

Click here for full coverage on Road to Recovery stories.

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